On Thu, 8 Dec 2005 23:11:33 -0700, "Jay Beckman"
wrote:

"Roger" wrote in message
.. .
Leak?

I was raised in rural Michigan. In the 40's and 50's they used to
*spray* the gravel roads with brine and/or oil. In many places they
even used what was affectionately known as "drip". Ever hear a car
run on that stuff? :-)) When changing the oil in cars and tractors
people were encouraged to spread it on the gravel roads to keep the
dust down. The brine truck used to make at least two trips a summer
down our road.

Most of the foundation for older roads around here has two or three
heavy coats of brine.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

Roger

If it weren't for brine, there'd be no Dow and if there were no Dow there'd
probably be no Midland.

http://www.geo.msu.edu/geo333/dow.html

I can still hear my boss's voice on the Corporate History piece we did:

"It was in 1897 that Herbert Dow discovered Brine buried in pockets deep
beneath the Earth..."

Deep? The stuff is so close to the surface around here probably 10 to
20% of the home water wells are brine producers. Anything over 150
feet is quite likely to hit brine instead of clean water. Dow used
the brine to produce Bromine. The original well has been rebuilt and
stands between main street and the river about a mile to the NW of the
business district and next to the corner of North wood University.

BTW, the original oil fields in this area were only 500 to 1500 feet
deep. There is also a very large coal deposit that under lays most of
the Saginaw valley. The vein is at its thickest and deepest in this
area at roughly 400 feet plus change.It's very close to the surface of
the shale and there is almost 400 feet of sand, gravel, and clay (full
of water) on top of that. Of course the coal, like the oil has very
high sulfur content and the coal vein is only about 3' thick at the
thickest. It's also very soft coal. OTOH there are many hundreds of
square miles of the stuff. It comes to the surface at the north side
of the valley and can be seen in rock outcroppings where it's only a
few inches thick.

When I say valley, don't think in terms of Colorado or Kentucky. At
its widest the valley must be close to 100 miles across and is only a
couple hundred feet deep. Unless you are watching you can drive out
of it and never be aware you left. I used to live 65 miles from work.
The last 5 miles on the way home were where US-10 climbed out of the
valley just west of Farwell MI.

We lived just about 300 to 400 yards west of the top of Michigan's
"continental divide". There was a 200' plus radio tower on the top of
the hill and I climbed that thing many a time. One day I was up there
and heard a jet coming. I kept looking, but no jet. Then I looked to
the west and down. He was less than a mile west and about 100 feet
below me and really hauling. There is an MOA there, but the base is
7000 feet.

One night I woke around midnight to the sound of a very loud prop
plane. I rolled over and looked out the bedroom window which faced
east and the tower just in time to see what appeared to be a Beech 18
headed south just above the tops of the trees between us and the
tower. He had to have been with in 100 feet of the guy lines. He was
close enough I could see the sparks and fire coming out of the exhaust
stacks.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

Jay Beckman
PP-ASEL
Chandler, AZ
(Production Intern - Dow Chemical Co. PR Dept. Midland, MI - '84/'85)